Zia
Zia was given to 146 girls in 2025, #1,477 among girls’ names; 3,550 Americans have been recorded with it since 1976 (Social Security Administration, published May 2026).
An estimated 3,520 Americans named Zia and born in the U.S. are alive in 2026 (99% of everyone recorded); the median is 11 years old and half are between 5 and 18.
Girls and boys together; gaps are years SSA did not record (fewer than 5 births).
Births of Zia by year: SSA national baby-name file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
What does Zia mean?
Wiktionary, English section
Zia is “a male given name from Arabic popular among Muslims.” Its etymology gives the sense “light” (ضِيَاء).
Borrowed from Arabic ضِيَاء (ḍiyāʔ, “light”) via Spanish.
/ˈzi.ə/
Meaning: Wiktionary, English section, as of Sep 25, 2026 (CC BY‑SA 4.0).
How popular is Zia?
#1,477 among girls’ names, 2025
Zia rose from #1,653 in 2015 to #1,477 in 2025 among girls’ names; its share of girls born rose from 72.8 to 90.8 per million.
213 babies in 2024, the peak
Zia peaked in 2024, when 213 babies were given it (200 girls, #1,192 among girls’ names). The 157 births of 2025 (girls and boys) are 74% of that peak.
Births by sex.
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 146 | #1,477 | 0.09 |
| 2024 | 200 | #1,192 | 0.12 |
| 2023 | 183 | #1,263 | 0.11 |
| 2022 | 181 | #1,308 | 0.11 |
| 2021 | 152 | #1,425 | 0.09 |
| 2020 | 161 | #1,360 | 0.10 |
| 2019 | 192 | #1,228 | 0.11 |
| 2018 | 142 | #1,539 | 0.08 |
| 2017 | 119 | #1,769 | 0.07 |
| 2016 | 143 | #1,566 | 0.08 |
Every recorded year (44)
| Year | Births | Rank | Per 1,000 girls |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 130 | #1,653 | 0.07 |
| 2014 | 122 | #1,727 | 0.07 |
| 2013 | 135 | #1,598 | 0.08 |
| 2012 | 129 | #1,662 | 0.07 |
| 2011 | 109 | #1,856 | 0.06 |
| 2010 | 82 | #2,340 | 0.05 |
| 2009 | 95 | #2,138 | 0.05 |
| 2008 | 71 | #2,628 | 0.04 |
| 2007 | 99 | #2,070 | 0.05 |
| 2006 | 79 | #2,394 | 0.04 |
| 2005 | 51 | #3,121 | 0.03 |
| 2004 | 59 | #2,776 | 0.03 |
| 2003 | 54 | #2,881 | 0.03 |
| 2002 | 37 | #3,649 | 0.02 |
| 2001 | 49 | #2,958 | 0.03 |
| 2000 | 52 | #2,812 | 0.03 |
| 1999 | 36 | #3,505 | 0.02 |
| 1998 | 28 | #4,137 | 0.02 |
| 1997 | 23 | #4,655 | 0.01 |
| 1996 | 23 | #4,576 | 0.01 |
| 1995 | 20 | #5,013 | 0.01 |
| 1994 | 15 | #6,309 | 0.01 |
| 1993 | 20 | #4,991 | 0.01 |
| 1992 | 8 | #10,469 | under 0.01 |
| 1991 | 16 | #5,942 | 0.01 |
| 1990 | 12 | #7,295 | 0.01 |
| 1989 | 13 | #6,524 | 0.01 |
| 1987 | 7 | #9,815 | under 0.01 |
| 1986 | 7 | #9,536 | under 0.01 |
| 1985 | 5 | #12,496 | under 0.01 |
| 1984 | 6 | #10,414 | under 0.01 |
| 1982 | 7 | #9,232 | under 0.01 |
| 1980 | 5 | #12,156 | under 0.01 |
| 1976 | 5 | #10,909 | under 0.01 |
Ranks and shares: girls’ names in each year’s SSA file; share of all girls SSA recorded that year.
Is Zia a boy’s or a girl’s name?
Of the 3,550 Americans recorded as Zia, 91% are girls and 9% boys. In 2025 it went to 146 girls and 11 boys.
Years with fewer than 20 babies given the name are left blank.
Girls and boys named Zia: the SSA national file counts each sex separately.
How many people are named Zia, and how old are they?
3,520 alive in 2026, estimated
That is 99% of the 3,550 Americans ever recorded as Zia. The median Zia alive today is 11 years old; half are between 5 and 18.
The 2020 Census counted 3,352 people named Zia (2,338 women and girls, 1,014 men and boys). SSA’s births carried forward to Census day, April 1, 2020, predict 2,472 born in the U.S. The Census count is 36% above that prediction. Possible reasons: the Census counts people born abroad, whom SSA’s files leave out, and it records the name people give, which SSA may have recorded under another spelling or as part of a compound name.
Alive today, by age
Alive today, by generation
| Generation | Born | Alive |
|---|---|---|
| Generation X | 1965-1980 | 10 |
| Millennials | 1981-1996 | 189 |
| Generation Z | 1997-2012 | 1,160 |
| Generation Alpha | 2013-2025 | 2,170 |
An estimate, not a count. SSA’s files count people born in the United States who received a Social Security number, so anyone born abroad is not in them; before 1937 most people got a number as adults, and their survival is counted from that age.
Living estimate: SSA births carried forward with the survival rates in SSA’s cohort life tables (2024 Trustees Report) for each birth year and sex. How the estimate is made. Count: Census Bureau, first names in the 2020 Census (released April 14, 2026; names reported 100 or more times, with the Bureau’s disclosure-avoidance adjustment).
Where are babies named Zia born?
The states with the most babies named Zia are Texas, California and Florida, with 57% of its births recorded by state in 2025.
| State | Births 2025 | Rank, girls | vs. national |
|---|---|---|---|
| Texas | 21 | #1,264 | 0.8× |
| California | 18 | #1,359 | 1.0× |
| Florida | 12 | #1,242 | 0.6× |
| Washington | 9 | #730 | 0.8× |
| New Mexico | 8 | #216 | 7.1× |
| New York | 8 | #1,653 | 0.6× |
| Arizona | 7 | #907 | 0.3× |
| North Carolina | 7 | #1,279 | 0.3× |
Where Zia is more common than its national share predicts
Relative to its national share, Zia is most over-represented in New Mexico: since 1976 it was given 7.1 times as often there as its national share each year would predict.
States: SSA state file, 1910-2025, published May 8, 2026; births count girls and boys together, and the rank is among girls’ names in the state in 2025. The file leaves out any state and year with fewer than 5 babies of the name, so small states are undercounted; each ratio compares the state’s births of Zia with the births its national share predicts year by year, for states with at least 100 births of the name.
Names spelled alike
Of these 8 names spelled alike, given to 10,443 babies since 1880, Zia is the most given (34% of them). In 2025 it was given to 157 of their 536 babies (29%), again the most given.
Spelled alike: names in the SSA national file with the same pattern of letters and sounds and at most two letters apart, and Wiktionary’s listed forms; births since 1880 and in 2025, and each name’s peak year, from the SSA national file, published May 8, 2026. Some are separate names, not spellings of one.
Names that rose and fell in the same decades as Zia
Names whose births rose and fell across the same decades, measured on each decade’s share of births.
Similar histories: each decade’s share of births, from the SSA national file, 1880-2025, published May 8, 2026. SSA’s notes on the data.
More about Zia and names like it
- Compare Zia and ZiyaBirths, ranks, peak and the living estimate side by side.
- The most given names of the 2020sZia peaked in 2024.
- California’s most given namesThe state where SSA recorded the most babies named Zia since 1910.
- Arabic namesWiktionary’s origin for Zia: every such name, by how often it is given.
- The top names of 2024The year the most babies were named Zia.
- The names of Generation AlphaMost people named Zia alive today were born 2013-2025.
- Names starting with ZMost given first.